The Challenger flag is an American flag that was placed in the flight kit of Space Shuttle Challenger for mission STS-51-L. The flag was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado, whose Scoutmaster was William "Bill" Tolbert, a major in the United States Air Force assigned to the Space Command.
Challenger, which launched with the flag aboard on January 28, 1986, broke apart 73 seconds into its flight. In the course of recovery operations at sea over the next several weeks, this flag was found intact and ultimately returned to the scout troop months later.